Breeding star finch head colors

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Darkangel1977
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I'm soon going to start breeding star finches. I really love both the red and yellow headed colors, if keeping them together will they produce splits of each color? Just curious if that's a way to improve the size and quality of the birds also. I do plan on just keeping the yellows tho. Thanks for any one that responds 👍
Blue Gouldian Breeder and Bird lover
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Craig52
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Stars are quite easy to breed given the right conditions. A good clean finch mix and plenty of seeding grasses.
The yellow head mutation is autosomal recessive so yes if you breed a red to a yellow all young will be split for yellow.
If possible buy yellow heads to breed yellow heads from two different breeders for different blood, some red heads you buy might already split yellow which is a shame really as they should be kept separate.

Craig
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Rod_L
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Try not to cross different colours of birds. People go into a shop wanting to buy red head or yellow head and they get birds that are carrying all sorts of genes. When they breed they produce unwanted colours and upset the breeder. I spent years keeping pure blood lines of Gouldians and bought some birds in that were meant to be pure. Turns out they had all sorts of crap genes and none of the offspring were pure. That ruined the breeding program for a couple of years.
death to all cats & ants
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Darkangel1977
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Craig52 wrote: 21 Apr 2021, 23:24 Stars are quite easy to breed given the right conditions. A good clean finch mix and plenty of seeding grasses.
The yellow head mutation is autosomal recessive so yes if you breed a red to a yellow all young will be split for yellow.
If possible buy yellow heads to breed yellow heads from two different breeders for different blood, some red heads you buy might already split yellow which is a shame really as they should be kept separate.

Craig
Thanks Craig, good to know. I definitely don't want to mess the future breeding of the head colors, was just interested to know if that's what has been done in the past... sounds like it has. Looking forward to finding some good yellow stock out there! 👍
Blue Gouldian Breeder and Bird lover
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Darkangel1977
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Rod_L wrote: 25 Apr 2021, 08:16 Try not to cross different colours of birds. People go into a shop wanting to buy red head or yellow head and they get birds that are carrying all sorts of genes. When they breed they produce unwanted colours and upset the breeder. I spent years keeping pure blood lines of Gouldians and bought some birds in that were meant to be pure. Turns out they had all sorts of crap genes and none of the offspring were pure. That ruined the breeding program for a couple of years.
Yes I get what your saying but there are times, such as producing a new mutation when people need to cross colors of birds, the BLUE gouldian is a good example. It is a shame when you set out to breed a normal strain or a certain mutation and unknowingly have splits on your hands, I think we have all been there lol especially when it comes to finches
Blue Gouldian Breeder and Bird lover
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Gympie birds
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I had a red pair that I thought was a pure red and then one chick had a yellow head. These birds were brought from a pet store so I had no knowledge of their parents head colour. However I now have brought birds direct from breeders so I hope this might solve the problem as I know what head colour they are.
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finchbreeder
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There are always the occassional situation of a split gene bird paired to a normal. This happens for 10 yrs, as long as the split gene is never paired to another split gene. Only normal birds appear. (Visually anyway) Then 2 birds are paired - they are very distantly related - but guess what - they got the split gene and there is the recessive chick that the breeder did not know could show up. So don;t always get mad at the supplier of a bird that produces a recessive.
This is something to mention in articles on pure genes always.
LML
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Gympie birds
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I was happy that I had a yellow chick. It did not worry me. I do have yellow stars that are in the same avairy as my red heads as I feel they can pick there own partners.
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finchbreeder
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If it is not a problem to you all good. But you will always have the problem when selling your young red of not being able to say they are pure. Even if the reds pair up, because sometimes the neighbour has his wicked way while the hubby is looking elswhere.
LML
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Gympie birds
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Good to know I might have to move the yellow pair.
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